“Crowned” Fe4S4 Clusters as Electrochemical Metal Ion Sensors

Abstract

A series of Fe4S4 cluster compounds, I, III, and V, in which the cuboidal cluster core is appended with four crown ether thiolate ligands, and II and IV, bearing thiolate ligands without crown ether parts, has been synthesized and characterized. The spectroscopic and electrochemical properties of these compounds are determined by the electronic nature of the thiolate ligands. Only in the case of III, where a very short α-thioacetyl linker was used to connect the crown ether ligands to the cluster core, was a restricted conformational freedom of the ligand observed. A detailed electrochemical study of the influence of alkali and earth alkali metal ions (Li+, Na+, K+, Mg2+, and Ba2+) on the reversible 2–/3– reduction of the cluster compounds was performed. In the case of the crown ether appended clusters I, III, and V, the addition of these metal ions resulted in an anodic shift, i.e. in positive direction, of the reduction potential (modulation effect) and to larger current responses (promotion effect). The magnitude of the modulation effects is determined by the binding affinity of the metal ions in the crown ether ligands, and by the distance between bound metal ions and the redox active cluster core. Variation of the linker between the cluster core and the metal ion binding site resulted in cluster compounds with almost inverse selectivities for e.g. K+ and Ba2+ in the case of I and III. For the large effects found for compound I a lariat binding mode is proposed.